Killed Off For Real / Video Games

• In American McGee's Alice the Jabberwock is the only villain who stays dead after Alice defeats him, and is never revived later. The most likely reason for this is that, due to what he says to her, he is the embodiment of the guilt she feels over the death of her family. Because the guilt is something she is able to completely rid herself of at the end of the first game, he truly dies.
• Artery Gear: Fusion: Despite the lighter tone of the earlier chapters, the main story isn’t afraid to get dark. In the battle against the Iron Maiden, many Artery Gears die. These include named characters that can be obtained as gameplay units, such as Della, Yuyi, and Pepe.
• At Dead of Night: Maya has to find and save the rest of her friends at the very end of the game before escaping the hotel herself; if she's caught by Jimmy, she doesn't simply get knocked out by him. This time she's a goner and the game even says so with "Jimmy hit you for the last time. Your escape ends here." Of course the player can try again, but will have to start from the final save point.
• Baldur's Gate III: During one night the player character will wake up and discover that Astarion is a vampire. They can decide (at several points) to stake him using an impromptu broken stick, which permanently kills him. This decision cannot be taken back, not with coin, and not even a Scroll of Resurrection will save him. The same also happens if he falls during the fight against his master.
• Batman: Arkham City concludes with the death of The Joker. Yes, even despite having Joker Immunity. Even Commissioner Gordon is stunned by the news. Mark Hamill has since tweeted that he had a great time playing the Joker, but he won't be doing so anymore. Batman: Arkham Knight did bring the Joker back (with Hamill returning to play him), but made it clear that Joker was just a hallucination inside of Batman's mind, and was canonically still dead.
  Batman: Do you want to know something funny? Even after everything you've done, I would have saved you.
  Joker: [laughing and coughing uncontrollably] That actually is... pretty funny...
• In Bendy and the Ink Machine, death usually results in a soul being pulled back into the ink to be made another body. However, the eponymous Bendy has no soul. He doesn't come back until restarting the game with Chapter 1, as Joey Drew does in the Gainax Ending that restarts a possible "Groundhog Day" Loop. That is, if it wasn't all just a story that Joey based off his fictional characters, his friend Henry Stein, and the eponymous ink machine sitting in his house to begin with.
• Several characters die in BlazBlue, but due to the "Groundhog Day" Loop the game takes place in, no one stays dead. There are, however, two exceptions to this: Nu-13, who dies at the end of Calamity Trigger, and Lambda-11, who performs a Heroic Sacrifice in Continuum Shift's True Ending. As of the True Ending of Continuum Shift, the "Groundhog Day" Loop is broken, so anyone who dies from here on out dies for good. Given the tone established so far, expect more entries to be added here soon.
  • And indeed, by the time of the real sequel, there were no Murakumo unit characters. Until Mu comes back due to Rachel, Nu wills herself back and a new Murakumo is said to come. Said Murakumo being the Prototype, Izayoi, AKA Tsubaki Yayoi's Ars Armagus. This trope is still played straight for Lambda-11, though... until the Arcade version came out. Yuki Terumi/Hazama and Trinity Glassfield (both of whom were sort of already dead) are gone for good as of Chronophantasma; the former offing the latter, after his end at Hakumen's hands. Well, at least Terumi and Trinity are. Luna, Sena, and even Hazama might still be kicking.
• Throughout the Borderlands series, a multitude of villainous characters and enemies die quite frequently, and never come back. Nine-Toes, Sledge, The Baron, Wilhelm, Red and Belly, and so on. However, one of the most shocking deaths in the games, Roland, is actually killed right in front of you, and a mission follows this where you tell the people of Sanctuary of the loss that they have suffered, which results in everyone genuinely grieving even when most of them couldn't care less about anyone else dying.
• After coming Back from the Dead some 20 times over the course of the Castlevania series, Dracula finally gets destroyed for good in an untold event prior to Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. He tries to reincarnate, but Soma Cruz (the would-be reincarnation) wants nothing to do with it, and thus Dracula stays dead. People argue about to what level Soma is Dracula, but it's kind of a meaningless argument, as the games following it are all set before Aria.
• In Clive Barker's Jericho, a game in which the main characters make up an army-based squad of people with supernatural powers, two of whom who have the ability to bring recently-deceased squadmates back from the dead provided that they maintain visual contact, has both Simone Cole and Xavier Jones being killed off (extremely horribly) towards the end of the game, when the Firstborn decides to blow them into bloody pieces, with no chance of revival even remotely possible.
• Danganronpa has flip-flopped on this repeatedly. Most of the time, someone who dies is going to stay dead and won't reappear outside of flashbacks. The second game undoes the deaths of Junko (via her AI) and Alter Ego (via Chihiro's AI), only for them to both die for real again soon after. Meanwhile, none of the students that die in the second game are actually dead, except for Chiaki Nanami, who suffered this trope not just once, but twice, with both her AI and human selves being the only members of Class 77-B to permanently die. The third game brings everyone from the previous games back, but only as cosplays for Tsumugi; everyone who is dead by that point is still dead, it's just that Tsumugi is copying them in cosplay.
• Dark Souls does this to a lot of NPCs. Oddly enough, when they die or are killed by you, they die for real despite the Darksign supposedly bringing people back from the dead repeatedly.
• Detroit: Become Human: Depending on the choices the player makes; the playable characters will die, and the story will continue with their segments removed. Connor and/or the hostage can be killed during the hostage situation, for example. Same goes for Kara and her owner's daughter, or Markus and his friends at Jericho. Connor is an odd case because CyberLife will boot up a copy with the same memories, but his deaths do have an effect on him, and each Connor is a character in their own right.
• Digimon Survive: Any member of the survivor party can die bar Takuma and Minoru, and if it happens, their Digimon (known as "monsters" or "Kemonogami") partners disintegrate. It's established that monsters in this world don't reincarnate (with the exception of Renamon in the Moral Route) so they're killed off permanently too. And if the ones killed are Saki or Miu, you are in for a very bad time.
• David in Dino Crisis 2 is presumed dead in the intro cut, and later dies for real saving Dylan from an Allosaurus, which eats him.
• In Donkey Kong Country and related games, Wrinkly Kong dies between Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! and Donkey Kong 64. She does remain in the series as a ghost, however.
• Dragon Quest V: Ladja kills Pankraz and then burns his body to ashes to ensure he cannot be brought back.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • A notable exception throughout the series are the Daedra, who possess Complete Immortality and cannot truly die. While their physical manifestations can be slain, their spirits simply return to Oblivion to reform. In fact, in-universe scholars do not even like to use terms like "killed" or "slain" when referring to defeated Daedra, preferring "banished" instead. For example, Mehrunes Dagon has been banished at least three times (by Almalexia in the backstory, by the Hero of Battlespire in Battlespire, and by Martin/Akatosh in Oblivion).
  • Morrowind:
    • The end of the main quest sees Dagoth Ur killed off for real. It's actually a plot point, as he's been defeated/slain before, but due to his connection to the Heart of Lorkhan, he always comes back. Since he has cut the Tribunal off from recharging their own divinity with the Heart, his power has waxed while their's has waned. By severing the enchantments on the Heart using the Tools of Kagrenac, the Nerevarine cuts off both Dagoth Ur and the Tribunal from its power, allowing them to be permanently killed.
    • The Tribunal expansion sees Almalexia, one of the members of the Tribunal who has gone mad due to the loss of her divine power, killed off for real. Before being killed herself, she has seemingly done this to fellow Tribune Sotha Sil as well. However, as later revealed in the prequel The Elder Scrolls Online, it is possible that Sotha Sil has uploaded his mind into his Clockwork City, so he may not truly be dead.
  • Oblivion:
    • Within the first five minutes of the game, Emperor Uriel Septim VII (who has served as a Big Good and all around Good King since the first game in the series) is assassinated by the Mythic Dawn. This act kicks off the Oblivion Crisis, the central conflict of the game's plot.
    • Near the end of the main quest, Mankar Camoran is killed by the Champion of Cyrodiil and then his realm of Oblivion, Paradise, collapses in.
    • In the Knights of the Nine expansion, killing off Umaril the Unfeathered for real is a plot point. Due to a blessing by the Daedric Prince Meridia, he cannot truly be killed. (Even the legendary hero of mankind, Pelinal Whitestrake, was unable to truly kill him when they fought during the 1st Era Alessian Revolt.) The Champion must recover and sanctify the Crusader's equipment (originally worn by Whitestrake) in order to have a chance to defeat him. Ultimately, it is the blessing of Talos, which Whitestrake could not have gotten, that allows the Champion to kill off Umaril for real.
  • Skyrim:
    • Kodlak Whitemane and Skjor are both killed during the course of the Companions questline. (The Dragonborn can still encounter Kodlak's soul, however, if this is done before the main questline.)
    • This is the fate of any dragon killed by the player character. A regular individual who slays a dragon merely sends it into a sort of dormant state, and it can be brought back to life by Alduin (which is exactly what's happening in the game). But the Dragonborn absorbs the dragon's soul when they kill it, meaning that it can never be revived by any means. Alduin is the only exception; killing him to resolve the main questline merely banishes him, and he will be reborn when Akatosh intends it.
    • Sanctifying someone's mortal remains with Arkay's blessing will protect them against all forms of necromancy, keeping the corps from being raised after death. Styrr does this to the skull of the infamous Wolf Queen Potema to keep her from coming Back from the Dead, as she was a powerful necromancer in life and tried to revive herself.
• The Escape Velocity and X-Universe series feature play modes whereby the player gets Killed Off For Real if he dies (you can't reload your save because the game deletes it), called "Strict Play" and "Dead-Is-Dead" in their respective series.
  • Borders on Nintendo Hard in the X-Universe, because the game can't distinguish between dying because your ship got shot to pieces and dying because the Random Number God decided to make a cruiser crash into you at a jumpgate. (In fairness, that would be really hard to code.)
• Double Subverted in Evil Genius. Each of your henchmen has 3 lives prominently displayed in their character pane, so if their Hit Points fall to zero three times they're gone, right? Yet as you play the game and this happens repeatedly, the life counters won't budge. The reason is that only a Super Agent can kill a henchman to the extent of losing a life — if they die that way three times, then they're not coming back.
  • This gets subverted again in Evil Genius 2, where not even Super Agents can kill a henchman. The only person who can kill them is the Genius themselves.
• In Evolve this is the fate of several of the hunters. Caira is killed by the Phantom Wraith on Shear, Cabot, Abe, Maggie, Griffin, and Lennox die to the Phantom Wraith, Kala post-mutation, or another monster on Shear, and Kala herself is eventually killed by Hyde.
• The end of the first Fatal Fury had the Big Bad Geese Howard seemingly killed by Terry Bogard (the hero) after the latter knocks him off the top of his skyscraper, but would later survive. However, Real Bout Fatal Fury would be heavily touted as their final showdown, as Terry knocks him off his own tower once again, and despite his efforts to save him, Geese spitefully lets go and plummets to his own death while laughing. Garou: Mark of the Wolves (set 10 years after Real Bout) would come to confirm that Geese is dead for good.
• The Final Fantasy series has had its share of permanent character deaths.
  • The very first such death in the series dates back to Final Fantasy II, in which Josef makes a Heroic Sacrifice. In fact, for a large part of Final Fantasy II the 4th party slot exists solely to accommodate a character who will die in some heroic fashion for the sake of the three main characters at some point. There were so many that you form a party from the dead in the GBA and PSP remakes for a bonus dungeon.
  • In Final Fantasy IV, Tellah dies after casting multiple spells in a row, then finally casting the ultimate black magic Meteor to defeat Golbez. In a title positively dripping with Unexplained Recoveries, Tellah is an exception; after admitting that vengeance wasn't really worth it, Tellah's body gives out. But as if to add insult to injury, Golbez survives the Meteor blast. The only silver lining is that it breaks Golbez's mind control over Kain.
  • In Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, a number of characters can be Killed Off for Real if you screw up. In Rydia's Tale, Calca and Brina will, after glitching due to magic, be scrapped in order to repair the airship, unless you get the Mythril parts. In Edge's tale, All of the ninja under Edge will die for real if you die during their mission before meeting back up with Edge. Time for some Save Scumming! And in the final chapter, It's possible to lose Golbez forever.
  • In Final Fantasy V, Exdeath kills Galuf in a Duel Boss. During the fight, Galuf uses some Heroic Willpower and The Power of Love to remain standing even at zero HP, at least long enough to cause Exdeath to flee. But after that, even though the party tries healing items and magic, nothing works. The strain on Galuf's body is so great that he dies, with no way to bring him back.
  • In Final Fantasy VI, General Leo is killed in a cutscene after the first and only time you get to use him in battle. Shadow will die for real if you don't wait for him on the Floating Continent, and Professor Cid will likewise die if Celes doesn't take good care of him, but those two can both survive if you play your cards right. General Leo, however, is going to die no matter what.
  • In Final Fantasy VII, Aerith is suddenly stabbed right through her back by an avatar of Jenova assuming the form of the main villain Sephiroth. Although there are many rumours about resurrecting Aerith in some way created by fans, there's no legit way to bring her back. Aerith is able to communicate beyond the grave in her spirit form, but she's definitely dead.
  • Final Fantasy X has both Tidus and Auron die at the end of the game. Well, Auron was already dead, but he still counts, since he's gone for good from all other related material. However, the Golden Ending of FFX-2 shows Tidus having been brought Back from the Dead, with 100% Completion also having him and Yuna speculate on how this was possible.
  • In Final Fantasy XIII-2, Serah has one last vision before dying at the end of the game.
  • Final Fantasy XIV
    • The Ascians can die, but they always come back. It's eventually explained how they cheat death and how one can kill them for good. An Ascian's soul is extremely powerful and they avoid death by hanging between the planes of life and death until they can come back. To permanently kill an Ascian, one would have to either blast them with an absurd amount of aether or kill their bodies, trap the soul in white auracite, then use a large amount of aether on the auracite to shatter it and the soul in one fell swoop. Two of the Ascians die through the auracite method, one Asican is killed when his soul gets eaten by a primal, and another one is destroyed by using a world's worth of light-aspected aether to kill him.
    • Zenos slits his own throat at the end of Stormblood, but he still comes back anyway by possessing a soldier's body and regaining his old body from another Ascian who had pulled a Grand Theft Me. He does this because he's such a Blood Knight that he can't resist having one more rematch with the Warrior of Light. Once all "distractions" are removed by helping the Warrior defeat the Big Bad of Endwalker, Zenos is the True Final Boss, a one-on-one clash, just as he wants it. But once the Warrior of Light wins, Zenos reflects on how things could have been different before the breath leaves his body. The Warrior of Light only escapes because their teleporter sent them back to their ship for immediate medical treatment. Zenos, meanwhile, expired without getting any help. And even if he did, he's trapped in a featureless void at the end of the universe, so there's no possible way he could have survived. Interviews with the writers also confirmed that Zenos is definitely dead, and that he's not coming back.
    • In Shadowbringers, the Crystal Exarch/G'raha Tia dies after his body turns to crystal upon Elidibus being slain. He gets better, but only technically; thanks to a Soul Jar, the Warrior of Light is able to do a Split-Personality Merge with G'raha Tia's younger self on the Source. Meanwhile, the Crystal Exarch of the First is definitely dead, and there's no way to bring him back. Even the aforesaid merging of souls was an in-universe longshot that thankfully worked out for him; had even the slighest thing gone wrong, that really would have been it.
  • Final Fantasy XVI has Cidolfus dying partway through the game during the raid on Oriflamme, protecting Clive from Typhon. His mantle of "Cid" and the leader of the Hideaway ends up being taken over by The Hero Clive, who calls himself "Cid" to maintain his cover. Even Clive's little brother Joshua, who was seemingly killed at the beginning of the game, doesn't stay down, since he survived the raid that apparently killed him. Cidolfus, however, is gone for good once he kicks the bucket.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics has party members die for real if they are not revived after 3 turns when their HP hits zero. This also counts as an instant game over if Ramza is killed. Guest units are simply knocked out instead of dying unless the mission conditions state otherwise.
  • Final Fantasy Tactics Advance eases up on the concept of party members dying for real, restricting true death to Jagds where party members can die if they are not revived before the battle ends. This is explained in the story where judges and the laws prevent death and the Jagds are places where laws cannot exist, thus people can truly die and only the most hardened clans are willing to have battles in those areas.
• This is built into the gameplay of Fire Emblem (especially the games released before Fire Emblem: Awakening). If one of your units reaches zero hitpoints, they die and are unusable for the remainder of the game, unless they happen to be important to the plot in which case they are merely "wounded" but still are unusable.
  • A few have subverted it, though. Fire Emblem Gaiden has resurrection springs (though reaching one is a sidequest in itself), and several other games in the series have resurrection staves... though they have limited irreplaceable charges, so if you run out, anyone else who dies is still dead forever.
  • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War takes it a step further. During Chapter 5, Quan and Ethlyn, characters who were previously in your army but are now NPCs, get ambushed by Travant and both of them are killed. Yes, characters that were once in your army are now dying, and you can't save them. At the ending of the same chapter, all of the first generation (with the exceptions of Lewyn (possibly; it's not certain if he was alive or being possessed by Forseti), Finn (who missed the battle because he had to take care of Quan's son Leif), Tailtiu (although she dies anyway in the interim), and the Jungby Princesses Edain (goes to work as a nun, but never sets her feet on the battlefield again) and Brigid (gets amnesia, takes an interquel to tell where she is), which is nearly half of the game's cast are killed when Arvis betrays Sigurd.
  • In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, during the first 10 chapters (Lyn's story), party members will not die, instead only being wounded and unable to be used until after chapter 10. This is due to the fact that the first 10 chapters are meant to be the tutorial levels.
  • Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem ~Heroes of Light and Darkness~ introduces a mode where your fallen units don't stay dead for the rest of the game when defeated called Casual Mode. In this mode, the unit leaves the battle, but can be used again later in the next battle. The characters have different dialogues for this mode when they fall, where they outright state that they need to retreat and heal their wounds. This mode reappears in all later Fire Emblem games.
• Five Nights at Freddy's:
  • The first game kills of the Phone Guy on the fourth night, your unseen predecessor that gave you hints on how to survive. It's implied that either Freddy or Golden Freddy got him. Noticeably, he's one of the few human characters that don't come Back from the Dead as an animatronic.
  • The Toy Animatronics are to be scrapped shortly after the game's events. The third game shows that they weren't lying, as you can see their eyeless heads (and only their heads) in a box.
  • Five Nights at Freddy's 3 kills of Freddy Fazbear himself, alongside Bonnie, Chica, Foxy and Golden Freddy. 30 years before the game's events, William Afton, the Murderer himself, destroyed Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy in the first game's pizzeria. However, the souls stayed inside the destroyed animatronics. During the game's events, the attraction is set on fire, destroying the animatronic bodies. Then, Happiest Day happens, where the souls inside Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy pass on to the afterlife. Golden Freddy is never destroyed by Afton, but still passes on to the afterlife with his fellow souls.
  • A few games later, Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria Simulator kills off Scrap Baby, Molten Freddy, The Puppet, William Afton, Michael Afton and the Cassette Man. The Cassette Man lured the first three into the pizzeria and set the pizzeria on fire, killing all of them. Michael was hired as the manager and was given the option to escape, but decided to stay after the building was set on fire. Sadly, William found a way to survive. Again.
• Zato-1 from Guilty Gear. His original voice actor died, and they didn't want to use anyone else for the character, so they killed him off. Conveniently, his character story involved being menaced by a psychic parasite he gained as part of a bargain to trade his eyesight for power, so they had said parasite kill him and take over his body, writing him out of the story but keeping his moveset and sprite in the game.
  • The death of this same voice actor (Kaneto Shiozawa) also necessitated the killing of another of his characters, Rival Schools' Hyo Imawano at the end of Project Justice.
• Halo: In the end of Halo 3, the all-but-immortal Ensemble Dark Horse Sergeant Johnson finally meets his end.
• Heavy Rain features permanent death, even making it possible to have a standard ending with all of the playable characters dying.
  • Funnily enough, two of the characters have Plot Armor that doesn't come off until endgame. Those two are Ethan - who can be killed by the police or commit suicide - and Shelby - who dies either by getting shoved into a grinder by Jayden, shot by Jayden/Ethan/Lauren, or impaled by Madison.
• I=MGCM: Mao, a Cat Girl demon who seems to be nice in the New Year 2020 event who becomes a recurring villain and The Man Behind the Man for some limited-time events in 2020. She always have Disney Death, Joker Immunity and sometimes untouched by the heroines, until the Christmas 2020 event "It's a Wonderful Reincarnation", where she's escaped with fatal injuries, but then she finally meets her demise by the hands of Hakuri and Kokuri because they don't need her anymore. Cue gory discretion shots.
• In Inindo, characters on your party will be "injured" if they fall in battle. If you continue to fight with them, falling in battle again will likely result in permanent death. Likewise, potentially playable characters will randomly attack the main character while he rests. Defeating them either results in their surrender, or permanent death.
• While most of the original characters' deaths in Kingdom Hearts have been Disney Deaths, thanks to the way hearts work in that universe, there have been a few notable exceptions: the Riku Replica, Xion and Eraqus. Roxas and Naminé by the end of Kingdom Hearts II and Vanitas in Birth by Sleep might also count, depending on how you view their respective situations. Of the entire lot, though, Eraqus, Xehanort and "Repliku" look like they might be the only ones who are almost assuredly going to remain this trope.
  • Birth by Sleep's secret ending reveals Master Eraqus' heart currently resides in Terra's heart (after the former was backstabbed by Xehanort) the same way Kairi's heart resided in Sora's for most of the first game. The scene in which this occurs in Birth by Sleep is identical to the scene where this happens in the first game which acts as a foreshadowing of Eraqus' survival.
  • As Kingdom Hearts III comes out, it's subverted with Xion but Double Subverted with Riku Replica and Eraqus (they are revealed to be alive, but they die for real) and played straight with Xehanort and his incarnation, and also likely with Dark Riku and maybe Vanitas. Also Ephemer seems to be dead before the events of the game (unsurprisingly since his debut game is set thousands years before) and speaking of Kingdom Hearts χ Strelitzia is very likely dead too. That's only for the original character obviously, since the Disney characters that died in the movie often do the same in the game, with few exceptions like Maleficent and her raven or Kerchak, but there are a few more deaths that are exclusive to the game, like Lady Tremaine and her daughter's death or Hans' death.
• The power of Orochi vaporized Rugal Bernstein at the end of The King of Fighters '95. Yashiro Nanakase and his whole team take their own lives to empower Orochi's incarnation at the end of The King of Fighters '97.
• In the Kirby series, many recurring foes find themselves appearing again and again even after being defeated and exploding into stars. This even includes many of the major villains that appear to have been killed—they either might still exist in some grander otherworldly form^note Marx Soul, Drawcia Soul, Soul of Sectonia, and anything related to Dark Matter, although those are all destroyed as well, have the potential to return based on a Sequel Hook^note Yin-Yarn, or just have Joker Immunity^note Galacta Knight. There are some exceptions however:
  • Kirby defeats Nightmare in Kirby's Adventure during a battle on the moon. Even though we don't see what happened, it involved half of the moon being blown up so it's probably safe to assume he's dead. It also helps that he's the only villain not to canonically reappear or be revived in any form.
  • President Haltmann from Kirby: Planet Robobot is thus far the only one to be unambiguously erased entirely when Star Dream assimilates him and deletes his mind and soul from its OS.
• Both Left 4 Dead games treat dying as a slap on the wrist since dead players can respawn by being found trapped in a closet, or when the rest of their team makes it to a safe house (both representing the gathering of fellow survivors in Zombie Apocalypse stories). However, you don't get to respawn in a finale, since there are no closets, and anyone who is dead at the end of a campaign gets an In Memoriam during the post-game "credits". Also, Bill sacrificing himself to raise a drawbridge so the others could escape at the end of the first game. You find his corpse in the second game, and there is no way to bring him back.
• Ganondorf of The Legend of Zelda received Resurrective Immortality from his piece of the Triforce, ensuring that nearly every instance of Hijacked by Ganon is the same guy. There have been outliers however, as all three timelines end with Ocarina of Time Ganon's final death before the Merged Reality of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sees him reincarnated.
  • In Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Ganon's minions need Link's blood to revive Ganon. This is said to be the ONLY way to revive him at this point, since Link took the Triforce of Power from him after his defeat, and the Hyrule Historia explicitly states that Link's victory made his resurrection impossible.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Link severs Ganondorf's connection to the Triforce of Power with the Master Sword and he's betrayed by his minion Zant, killing him. However he's reincarnated in The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures alongside Link and Zelda before being finished off again.
  • At the end of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Ganondorf was stabbed through the forehead with the Master Sword, turned to stone, and buried at the bottom of the ocean. He didn't appear in any of the Wind Waker timeline sequels, and was only mentioned.
• The trope caused something of a problem for the very lore-conscious designers of The Lord of the Rings Online. Since resurrection (or even magical healing) of any kind is exceptionally rare in Tolkien's Legendarium, the dev team came up with a semantics-based gimmick to stave off the need for either: the player's green life bar doesn't measure life, it measures morale. Players are explicitly never referred to as being killed, only "defeated". Running out of morale represents the player losing the will to fight and fleeing the battle. Hope and Despair, a pair of super-buff/debuffs that represent overall mood, even cut or add to morale.
• Mass Effect:
  • In Mass Effect, on Virmire, Shepard has to leave either Kaidan or Ashley behind as a nuke goes off. Wrex can be killed earlier in the mission if you fail to secure his loyalty. BioWare has explicitly said that the dead party member(s) will not return in the sequels, potentially solidifying the series' listing under this trope.
  • Mass Effect 2's final dungeon requires a coordinated attack using your entire squad, in which you must assign characters to perform certain tasks (hacking a door, leading a squad, etc). Picking the wrong characters for certain roles will get them permanently killed off. Depending on how you resolve your party's loyalty quests, Shepard him/herself may not survive, either. A save file with this ending cannot be imported into Mass Effect 3.
  • Obviously, characters who died in the first two games don't appear in Mass Effect 3. Of the squadmates who can survive through to the third game, two (Thane and Legion) are guaranteed to die no matter what choices you pick, one (Mordin) can only survive if another squadmate (Wrex) is dead or killed, and several others (Jack, Miranda, Tali, Grunt, Samara, Zaeed) can die depending on the choices you make. Additionally, Shepard dies in all of the endings except for one variant of the "Destroy" ending.
  • Finally, Mass Effect 3 can potentially end with literally everyone getting killed, up to and including Shepard, as well as the entire galaxy if your War Assets are too low or you choose the "Refusal" ending.
• Mega Man
  • Rockman 4 Minus ∞ had Shadow Man escape from every battle until his last. He falls off the kite and dies with an offscreen explosion.
  • Zero from Mega Man X gets killed and rebuilt/resurrected several times over. However, at the end of the Zero series, he commits his final Heroic Sacrifice and stays dead, technically only reappearing to let the next generation of heroes take up his powers in Mega Man ZX. In the sequel, Model Z detonates the Ouroboros from the inside.
  • Hell, X HIMSELF is not safe from this trope, as his body is destroyed before the final battle of Zero 2. And just to drive home the trope, his VERY SPIRIT fades back into Cyberspace at the end of Zero 3. Like Zero, though, he technically comes back as a Biometal for the next generation in Mega Man ZX.
  • And then there's Sigma, who pretty much gets blown up at the end of every single game only to seemingly die for good in X8, and the Zero series reveals he's truly Deader than Dead due to the Sigma Virus being completely wiped out between the two series.
• Metal Gear:
  • Metal Gear Solid 2 has a character named Vamp who, no matter how many times he'd seemingly "die," he always comes back to life. Metal Gear Solid 4 explained this as a result of nanomachines enhancing his already powerful healing factor, and once Snake disables them with a syringe, Raiden is able to kill him off for good.
  • Metal Gear Solid 4 ties up the Solid story arc with lots of this. Big Boss, who was just hiding, is finally Killed Off for Real, as are Solidus and Ocelot.
• Metroid: After coming back from multiple fights with Samus Aran, Ridley dies in Super Metroid after Samus breaks his body to pieces and Planet Zebes blows up. That doesn't stop a clone of him from appearing in Metroid: Other M, or the frozen corpse of said clone being replicated by X-Parasites in Metroid Fusion. However, Ridley does not appear in Metroid Dread, so it can be assumed that, with his clones destroyed and all traces of his DNA wiped out in the events concluding Fusion, Ridley is gone.
• Monolith: This is Null's fate at the end of Hard Mode. Same with ??? after they or Overlord defeat the Normal Mode True Final Boss.
• Mortal Kombat:
  • This happens to Blaze at the end of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, no matter which character's ending it is.
  • Mortal Kombat 9, Shao Kahn appears to be toast in the end, and nothing in the sequel suggests he survived. Shang Tsung seems to have bitten it too; however, Ermac's arcade tower ending in X features him cheating death once again, and absorbing Ermac's collection of souls. It's unclear if this will be considered canon in future storylines.
  • Mortal Kombat X had a lot of casualties too, more among the villains this time. Baraka and Mileena are slain by D'vorah, Quan Chi is decapitated by Scorpion. Sektor is killed by Sub-Zero offscreen, though being his head and memories are left intact, so another version of him might show up. Also, most of the heroes slain in the previous game could not be restored, but are still around as Revenant Zombies.
  • Mortal Kombat 11 kicks off with the death of Sonya Blade in a Heroic Sacrifice before time travel shenanigans get involved, resulting in past versions of the previous Mortal Kombatants being pulled from time to the present era. Among the casualties this time are Kano, who gets a double-dose of death when Past Sonya puts one through Past Kano's eye, Shao Kahn is killed by Kitana in final vengeance for her family, and Hanzo Hasashi, the present Scorpion, is killed by D'Vorah.
• Mutant Football League, the Spiritual Successor to Mutant League Football below, has a less severe version of this in Season mode. While killed players are unusable for the rest of the game, wins earn you a handful of revives — Anti-Frustration Features for the 13+ game slog. There are also "Expendable" players at the bottom of the depth chart who are automatically resurrected between games if killed, to ensure you can always field a team. This results in a surprisingly strategic ploy for an arcade-style football game, figuratively burying Star Players in your depth chart and wearing down your foes with your Expendables before literally burying them with your fresh and eager for blood Stars.
• In both Mutant League Football and Mutant League Hockey, this is part of playing with Reserves on. With Reserves off, players who are killed will be good as new at the start of the next play (MLF) or at the next stoppage of the game (MLH). With reserves on, players who die stay dead — meaning that if your star player dies in the first round of the playoffs, you can never use him again in that playthrough. The tradeoff is that with reserves on, you can make substitutions at your discretion. This encourages strategy in what players you field, and several teams have good players on the bench who can't be used with reserves off anyway.
• Surprisingly, Gameloft's My Little Pony iPhone game has this happen to Queen Chrysalis (and every other Changeling in Canterlot). At the end of the "Canterlot Wedding" event/level, they're vaporized by the Elements of Harmony. Rainbow Dash even says they'll "Get rid of these Changelings once and for all", which leaves little room for ambiguity.
• In Persona 3, Shinjiro Aragaki bites it a mere month after he joins your party. And so does Junpei's love interest, Chidori (though in the FES version of the game, it is possible to resurrect her). And in the very end, the Main Character sacrifices his life to save the world.
  • It's also possible to save Shinjiro in the PSP version. Sadly, Persona 4: Arena makes it clear this is non-canon (it can only happen in the non-canon Female!MC storyline, so it was doubtful to begin with).
• This is Nanako's fate in the worst ending of Persona 4. However, that's only if you really screw up. In every other scenario, she suffers a mere Disney Death.
• Persona 5 sees the Phantom Thieves use Heel–Face Brainwashing on their targets, though it's mentioned that killing a Shadow in the target's Palace also kills the person. The only time this happens is with Okumura, whose Shadow is shot dead by Black Mask after the Phantom Thieves change Okumura's heart. What's worse, Okumura only dies during a televised press conference in which he was about to lay out The Conspiracy, which is why he had to die — the Big Bad didn't want that information getting leaked. And even worse than that, Haru — Okumura's daughter and one of the Phantom Thieves — witnesses her father die on TV, and can't do anything about it. This also causes opinions of the Thieves to plummet, which is also headlined by the Conspiracy, all to make sure the Phantom Thieves suffer their Darkest Hour.
• The Phantasy Star series also exhibits this with respect to main characters:
  • In Phantasy Star II, Nei is either killed by NeiFirst completely overpowering her or dies after killing NeiFirst due to them being part of the same original being - even the Clone Shop says that nothing can be done. Subverted in the Sega Ages remake - after completing a process that can only be described as Guide Dang It! on a MASSIVE scale, Nei is resurrected without fanfare at the Clone Shop as if it was a normal combat death.
  • In Phantasy Star IV, Alys Brangwin is hit by, declines from, and permanently dies due to saving the main protagonist Chaz Ashley from the Dark Energy Wave. It is specifically mentioned that healing techniques do nothing to help as her health declines.
• Pizza Tower: If you play as the Noise, his boss fight with be replaced with a Palette Swap knockoff called the Doise, who attacks with rocks instead of bombs. Upon defeating the Doise, Peddito will rush across the screen, grab him, and pull the Doise out out of bounds. Attempting to rematch the Doise will only be met with his rotting, fly-covered corpse, which grants the Noise instant victory and a zero-effort P-rank. While it is possible to refight the Doise by taunting in front of their boss door three times, the Doise is still a corpse at the Boss Rush at the end.
  • Snotty is also an example of this. While you may not notice this green colored Cheeseslime at first when traversing between levels in the Slums, attacking it will cause a grave to appear there for the rest of that save file. Keeping it alive will actively reward you with a stamp of "Snotty Approved!" when clearing the game. Hopefully you weren't thinking of charging through the hub world to get to the next level. Damn You, Muscle Memory!
• It is strongly implied that Lysandre is, indeed, killed in Pokémon X and Y; he fires the death ray of the Ultimate Weapon at his own base in blind rage after being defeated by the player, causing it to collapse. The heroes escape, and Lysandre doesn't. Some believe that he may have became immortal in the Pokémon X version, but that would be even worse...
  • However, the title of the first character (or, actually, characters) in a main Pokémon game (even the Darker and Edgier Pokémon Colosseum, ironically), to canonically, and unambiguously, die goes to Professor Sada or Turo in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. They lose their lives protecting the player's Koraidon or Miraidon, depending on the game, from being attacked by another one of its kind, and they were replaced with an AI duplicate with their memories, who is the one that informs the player of it. Unfortunately, even the AI won't be safe from this trope, and the final battle with them (while they are controlled by the Paradise Protection Protocol, which stops them from turning off the time machine that the original professor(s) made that is responsible for the Paradox Pokémon appearing in Paldea in the first place) ends with them having to go to the past (Sada) or future (Turo) in order to keep the time machine functional enough for the player to turn it off, something that the AI states will essentially kill them too, as they won't be in the presence of the Tera Crystals, and, of course, the time machine, as both of them were crucial in keeping them alive. Fortunately, the Tera Crystals that now cover parts of their bodies from the last battle might be able to keep them functioning...for a while, at least.
• Usually, Death Is a Slap on the Wrist in the Pretentious Game series, but the ending of the second game has the blue square get killed by a drunk driver.
• Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time features an impressive deathcount of important characters: Alister Azimuth, Lord Vorselon, Cassiopeia, Carina and Libra.
• After being an immortal villain for almost the entire series up until Resident Evil 5, Albert Wesker turned into a monster and was finally -according to Word of God- killed for good. Word of God also said Resident Evil would definitely never come back to the PlayStation, so make of that what you will.
• In Sam & Max: Freelance Police, Max dies in his Eldritch Abomination form in the Season 3 finale, The City That Dares Not Sleep. Specifically, he was transformed into a giant Cthulhu-rabbit hybrid in the fourth episode, and at the end of the fifth episode, seconds before he is about to be saved by the Narrator, he gets hit by one of the Maintrons and teleports to Stinky's cell phone before he explodes. Despite being the perfect set-up for a Grand Finale, Max's time-travel paradox duplicate from 204 re-appears soon after Maxthulhu's death, implying future adventures. The current body count for that episode also includes everyone caught in Max's explosion, i.e. everyone on Skun-ka'pe's ship (To be more precise: Max, Sammun-Mak('s brain), Gra-pea'pe in Grandpa Stinky's body and Girl Stinky), as well as Sal and possibly Sam Jr earlier in the episode.
• In the world of Scrapland, there's a machine called "The Great Database", which revives any robot that is killed as long as their matrix is listed in it. The plot revolves around someone killing several high-ranking members of the city of Chimera by killing them when their matrixes have been removed from the database, preventing resurrection.
• The MMORPG Shaiya does this to players playing on Ultimate Mode. While you have access to the most powerful weapons and equipment on that difficulty level, if you don't get revived by an ally within three minutes of your character's death, that character's data is erased, and you have to start all over.
  • There is actually an AP item (premium item that you have to pay REAL money for) called "Character Revival". It costs 7500 AP. The exchange rate of AP to USD is approximately 100:1 (i.e., it'll cost you $75). However, seeing as how you have to reach level 40 on both Normal and Hard mode (no mean feat, if you don't use AP items and have a life outside of playing the game) to be able to create an Ultimate mode character in the first place AND it takes 4x the normal XP to level such a character, some might consider it worth it.
• This happens to Harry Mason in Silent Hill 3. Heather spends much of the game in the haunted mall trying to get home to Harry. But once she finally does, she finds Harry dead, slumped over in his chair. While the player doesn't get to see what kind of state Harry is in, Heather breaks down into Inelegant Blubbering in front of him, and later conversations confirm that Harry was killed by the evil cult.
• Skullmonkeys, the sequel to The Neverhood, applies this trope to the Big Bad of both games, Klogg. To really drive it home, they even sing it!
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • E-102 Gamma in Sonic Adventure. After the battle with E-101 Beta, he self-terminates himself to free the last trapped bird. While Gamma appeared in future games, it was made explicit that this was merely a apparition summoned by "dream magic" (in Sonic Shuffle), or a different robot that used the same design (in Sonic Battle).
  • THE END from Sonic Frontiers is destroyed by Sonic in both the original story and the The Final Horizon update. Ian Flynn confirmed this in a tweet following Sonic Superstars's release.
  • Ian Flynn confirmed in a BumbleKast that Sonic Rivals's Eggman Nega was left to die in the Chaotic Inferno Zone...and he did indeed die there.
• Tassadar, in the original StarCraft, dies to save the galaxy from the original Zerg Overmind. It is completely real, as far as video games go: he gives a stirring speech to those who will live on after him, to remember what was done there that day, which is then followed by the cinematic of him effectively blowing himself up via his awesome psionic abilities, and taking the Overmind with him. In sequel games, the death is so complete that the Protoss change their usual greeting of "An'taro Adun," which effectively means "May Adun protect you," to "An'taro Tassadar." If he were brought back, it would destroy half the Starcraft canon.
  • In the sequel, it seems that Blizzard has managed to do just this without ruining the canon. Tassadar comes back just long enough to warn Zeratul of the impending apocalypse in the capacity that Obi-wan does in Star Wars, as a sort of Force ghost, or Khala ghost, as it may be.
    • Then in the epilogue of Legacy of the Void, it is revealed that Ouros was pretending to be Tassadar's ghost to gain Zeratul's trust. So it turns out Tassadar himself had been killed off for real the whole time after all.
  • Many other characters are also killed, most of them in the Brood Wars expansion and some in official (or authorized) side campaigns. Other than obviously the Overmind (and the new Overmind formed to replace it); these include Raszagal, Gerard DuGalle(suicide), Edmund Duke, Fenix (died, came back, then Killed Off for Real), Aldaris, Alan Schezar, probably Ulrezaj, Atticus Carpenter, Edullon, Jack Frost and EVERY ZERG CEREBRATE. Most of these are unlikely to come back, however it is not impossible as Fenix came back once before dying again, and it turns out Alexei Stukov is definitely Back from the Dead. Even so, the only ones likely to come back are the cerebrates...and probably not the same ones. Other characters also die in other media, such as the novels.
  • And FINALLY, Kerrigan kills Mengsk. Oh yes.
  • In StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, Zeratul dies early on thanks to Amon dicking with the Khala and forcing Artanis to kill him. But on the bright side, not only do the Daelaam protoss evict Amon from the Khala as retribution, but they help Kerrigan erase him completely — and since Narud was his co-conspirator, Stukov sends Narud to join him!
• Dummied Out in Star Wars: The Old Republic, at least in regards to companion characters, for game balance reasons. Later expansions do allow certain companions to be killed, and one chapter includes a Sadistic Choice in a similar vein to Mass Effect.
• Steel Battalion does this to the Player Character. The game is so determined to present the most realistic mecha combat simulation possible, that there is no way to resume a game after you die; when your mech is close to blowing up, you are given ample chances to eject. If you don't, and your character dies, it erases your save file as a way of ensuring permadeath.
• In Streets of Rage, Mr. X is merely arrested after being defeated. In Streets of Rage 2, his body doesn't recover after his second defeat, and is revealed to be reduced to a Brain in a Jar in Streets of Rage 3. He's confirmed to be outright dead in Streets of Rage 4, with his two children Mr. Y and Ms. Y carrying on his legacy.
• In the Suikoden series, your characters may randomly die for real if defeated in a large-scale war battle.
• Suikoden Tactics: Plot-relevant characters are immune to this, but anyone else, can die permanently, and will let you know via dramatic Last Words.
• Generally, Super Mario Bros. is a series where Nobody Can Die and every death is a Non-Lethal K.O., most obviously with Bowser who either survives his battles with Mario or occasionally gets revived from them. This "protection" seems to get removed if you debut as the Final Boss of an RPG. Cackletta is the first Mario villain to outright die (Mario and Luigi even destroy her very soul for good measure). Among the Bros.' body count are the Shadow Queen, Dimentio, King Olly and Fawful (although he managed to last more than one game). Rarer still is the ally being killed Deader than Dead, a sad fate that notoriously befell Olivia in Paper Mario: The Origami King.
• After beating Aim in Super Robot Wars Z2: Saisei-Hen during Scenario 52 of the ZEXIS route or Scenario 57 of the Zero Requiem route, he regenerates from all his wounds. Asakim, who managed to escape from the ZONE with help from Gaioh, arrives on the scene. Thanks to his time trapped in the ZONE, Asakim has learned how to utilize the power of the spheres in his possession. He invokes the power of the Inquisitive Goat which reveals Aim's past.
  • It seems Aim's real name is Hamal Argo and he was once a researcher who built his career based on lies. Forced to face this truth, Aim's Sphere is weakened to the point of deactivation. Uther soon arrives, makes short work of Aim and takes his sphere.
• Wingmen who get killed in Tachyon: The Fringe stay dead. The exception is the JASPER robots, who are mass-produced and replaceable.
• Tales Series:
  • In Tales of the Abyss, Iemon, Tamara, Hencken and, Cathy are killed and later on Frings is killed by replicas. Also, the Six God Generals minus Dist all die. In the case of Asch, it's unclear from the Gainax Ending whether he's permanently dead, came Back from the Dead, had a Split-Personality Merge with Luke, or something else. However, Asch does seemingly die onscreen from trying to Hold the Line against an onslaught of soldiers.
  • In Tales of Destiny, Leon Magnus spills half the game's plot moments before the cave the party is in fills with floodwaters. In the original version of the game, the party cannot confirm that the deluge killed him and speculate that he might still be alive - the confirmation of this trope is actually fighting Leon as a zombie in the lead-up to the final boss.
    • The PS2 remake significantly changes elements of Leon's story. He still dies - it is a very rare story where he doesn't die - but there is no doubt that the flood kills him because he engages in a Heroic Sacrifice so the rest of the party can escape. The zombie bit is no longer functional storytelling in this version and has been cut out.
  • In Tales of Legendia, Stella dies after performing a Heroic Sacrifice to save Senel and Shirley. Later, Fenimore dies too, with no one coming to help her because the Ferines tribe knows that watching Fenimore die might make Shirley snap and become the Merines, an Apocalypse Maiden destined to destroy the world.
  • In Tales of Symphonia, if you pick the path where you fight Zelos, he pulls a Face–Heel Turn and dies for real after defeating him in a boss fight. Also, no matter which ending you get, Mithos dies for real by defeating him as the Final Boss, then shattering his Cruxis Crystal to set his soul adrift.
• Tekken has several cases of this.
  • After the Time Skip, Ogre attacks and absorbs several characters' abilities, with suspicions that he killed them for good. However, most characters were later brought back in later installments.
  • Armor King was another case where at first, he's thought to be Killed Off for Real outside the Ogre interference (Marduk killed him)., Another Armor King appeared in Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, but his personality is rather different, and he's revealed to be the brother of the original. Officially, only King I (killed by Ogre), Armor King I (killed in a bar brawl by Marduk before Tekken 4), Kuma I (died of old age between Tekken 2 and Tekken 3), and Heihachi (killed by Kazuya at the end of Tekken 7) have canonically kicked the bucket. All other characters who've disappeared are still alive. (Jun was for a long time left ambiguous, until Tekken 8 confirmed she's still around.)
• Undertale makes death a big deal for monsters and why they act so angry or sad when they see you killing their friends and family. A human that dies has its soul linger after death while monster souls instantly vanish upon death. Boss monsters have their souls linger for a short time and then shatter into pieces. Once a monster dies, they cease to be. Goin the Genocide route means you have to slaughter everyone and it doesn't even stop there. By the end of the game, a human child that used to live with the Dreemurr monster family and wasn't known to be a nice kid comes back from the dead due to your violent and murderous nature. They take full control away from you and kill the remaining two characters in a single strike. They then turn their attention towards you, killing you and destroying the world. If you reboot the game, you see that there's nothing but a black void. The entire world was killed.
• In Valkyria Chronicles, Isara dies on the Marberry shore, after her latest invention, the smoke shells, save her squad. In a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation, Isara and many other characters who were in fact killed off for real, such as Selvaria, are secret unlockables in Valkyria Chronicles
• Turned into a core game mechanic in Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume. Activating the titular item maxes out a character's stats, at the cost of having them die permanently at the end of the battle.
• The Walking Dead (Telltale) has this in spades — and they make sure you feel it. The first episodes feature not one, but two Sadistic Choice scenarios, one of which results in either Carly or Doug ending up horribly devoured. The second episode features Mark being used as a food source by cannibals and eventually succumbing to his wounds. The third episode kills off Carly or Doug, depending on who survived in the most sudden and upsetting way imaginable (made more depressing if the Lee and Carly relationship had been built up), and both Duck and Katjaa in one fell swoop. By the end of the third episode, the body count and the amount of trust issues plaguing what's left of the original group will leave both the player and Lee seriously emotionally drained. Then the final episode of Season One ends up forcing it upon Lee himself, and the choice to do so is given to Clementine...
• While a few characters in the Warcraft series have cheated death such as Medivh, many others have been Killed Off for Real. King Llane, Blackhand, Gul'dan, Anduin Lothar, Ogrim Doomhammer, King Terenas, Uther the Lightbringer, and Grom Hellscream from the RTS games have all died in ways to show that they likely won't be coming back, even with all the resurrection and necromancy present in the series. Llane had his heart ripped out, Blackhand had his head cut off, Gul'dan was torn apart by demons, Lothar and Doomhammer both died on the battlefield (not the same battle), Terenas and Uther were both slain by Arthas with Frostmourne, and Hellscream died in a Heroic Sacrifice. And that's not even covering the characters permanently killed by the players in World of Warcraft. Although Gul'dan's soul "lived on" within his skull.
  • As of Cataclysm, still more NPCs have been Killed Off for Real. The one most likely to hit home? The Grimtotem clan took advantage of a duel to assassinate Cairne Bloodhoof and try to pin it on Garrosh Hellscream.
    • Not just that, but Cho'Gall, a Warcraft II character of the Orc side, was finally killed off by players in the Bastion of Twilight.
    • Nefarian and Onyxia have a Back from the Dead moment in Black Wing Descent. But in the end, both fell for good by players.
    • Ragnaros averts this in Firelands Normal mode, but in Heroic, players are aided by Cenarius, Malfurion Stormrage and Hamuul Runetotem to finally deliver this trope to one of the most well-known World of Warcraft lore villains.
    • The Hour of Twilight dungeon reveals Archbishop Benedictus' Face–Heel Turn as the new leader of the Twilight's Hammer, forcing players (Regardless if they're Alliance or Horde) to kill him.
    • After being a Warcraft 2: Beyond the Dark Portal Unit for members of the Horde, and after the terror he caused in the Cataclysm, Neltharion the Earth-Warder, AKA Deathwing, is brought to an end by players in the Dragon Soul Raid.
    • Subverted with Gara'jal the Spiritbinder. To him, Death Is a Slap on the Wrist. He would later return to assist his Zandalari brothers and sisters in defending the Throne of Thunder from the Alliance and the Horde. Sadly, said brothers and sisters bite the big one.
    • The Grand Emperess Shek'zeer fell to the Sha before the arrival of the Alliance and the Horde. It takes a team of 10/25 heroes to bring her down.
    • Lei Shen winds up getting a Back from the Dead moment in Kun Lai Summit. But it is at the Pinnacle of Storms at the Throne of Thunder in which you bring down the tyrant, rip out his heart and make sure he never comes back again.
  • The Siege of Orgrimmar brings among the death of many characters, including, but not limited to: Rook Stonetoe, He Softfood, Sun Tenderheart, Malkorok, The Klaxxi, General Nazgrim (For many Horde players, this will be the ultimate Tear Jerker: Having to kill your Horde commander in Pandaria), and finally, The Old God Y'Shaarj after having his heart and soul converted to armor by Garrosh Hellscream (who gets arrested by Taran Zhu after losing) in the final battle in the Siege of Orgrimmar.
  • In Warlords of Draenor, Garrosh Hellscream meets his end in a final Mak'Gora against Thrall.
  • Many demonic characters seemingly die off for good in the RTS, but we learn later that since their death wasn't in the twisting nether, they can return. Manaroth, who was previously killed by Grom, returns in the Warlords of Dreanor opening, but gets killed by taking an iron star to the face. His skeleton is later revived and acts as the second to last boss of Hell Fire Citadel. As he is not killed off for good in the twisting nether, there is a chance at his return. The last boss, Archemonde, was thought to have been vaporized by wisps at the end of WCIII, is ultimately killed in the twisting nether (though this part of the fight only appears on Mythic difficulty), ending him for good.
  • Legion sees the death of Kil'jaden, Sargeras's right hand man. He is killed in the Nether right over Argus, making his death permanent.
  • While it is stated many times before hand that any demon that dies on Argus is gone for good as it is in the nether, we learn the Legion has been subverting this with the planet's world soul, twisting and tormenting it to bring back demons into Antorus if they die on Argus.
  • During the Shadowlands expansion, in the Sanctum of Domination, the Lich Kel'Thuzad finally has his Soul Jar destroyed and is killed off by the Adventurers.
• In A Witch's Tale, this can happen to any of Liddell's dolls if she runs out of the Rainbow Yarn items needed to repair them if they run out of HP.
• In The World Ends with You, all the Players are already dead and are playing the Reaper's Game to win another chance at life. However, Players erased by the Noise are killed off permanently and their entry fee is lost forever. Notable victims of Erasure include Rhyme in the first week (she recovers though), Sota and Nao in the second (as well as that Reaper) and all three Game Masters (Sho also recovers, once via his own preset Taboo refinery sigil and again by Coco using that same sigil herself) as well as Megumi.
  • Everyone except Rindo Kanade winds up experiencing erasure at least once in NEO: The World Ends with You, but it usually doesn't stick thanks to Rindo's abuse of the Replay psych. That said, anyone who gets erased after the Replay of that given day stays erased. The final casualty count includes the Deep Rivers Society (last place in the first Week), the Purehearts (last place in the second Week), the Variabeauties (eaten by Plague Noise in the third Week), Ayano (self-infected with Plague Noise) and Susukichi (erased by the Wicked Twisters). Kubo doesn't count; he gets exorcised, which is the erasure equivalent of Deader than Dead to the point time travel can't help you.
• In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, a Blade that resonates with a Driver reverts back to its Core Crystal when the Driver dies, and retains no memory of any of its previous 'lives' upon resonance with a new Driver. The only ways a Blade can 'die' without any means of resurrection is if its Core Crystal gets sufficiently damaged, or if it becomes a Flesh Eater, by being infused with human cells (though, even then, it may still live for centuries from there).
• In Xenoblade Chronicles 3, the soldiers on both sides of the Forever War are brought back (albeit without prior memories) in People Jars whenever they die within their ten-year lifespan, and get cycled back into the fold from there. N reveals to the captured Ouroboros that the only exception to this applies to those soldiers who manage to reach their Homecoming, by surviving the full decade and fading away into gold motes. He tells them this to demoralise them (and break Noah in particular), as he plans to keep them all captive until Mio reaches the end of her life. However, he couldn't conceive that M, his own beloved Mio, saw an opportunity to use this as an out from her own immortality as Moebius...
• The Flash-based platformer You Only Live Once is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. If you die once, it's game over. Try to continue, and you'll just get several cutscenes showing your girlfriend finding your body, calling an ambulance, a news report of your death, etc. in that particular order. Keep reloading the game and it'll just show your grave. You can't play again unless you delete two save files from your computer. In an incredibly cruel twist, if you do complete the game, you are arrested for killing the final boss.

---